What exactly does that mean? Today is a day where we as everyday consumers can acknowledge and recognize the plaguing issue that is Human Trafficking. For those of you that don’t already know, human trafficking is defined as the force, fraud, or coercion used to exploit a person into slave labor or sexual exploitation.

At Friend To Friend, we work with clients of many backgrounds and with many different experiences. In order to offer the most supportive services, we use a trauma-informed lens. This means that we are committed to creating an environment that fosters safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and that takes into account the cultural, historical, and gender issues that people face. It also means that we recognize that peoples’ behavior can often be rooted in a trauma response.

National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or SAAM, is an annual observance on behalf of sexual assault victims, survivors, and their families. It’s a time to raise awareness in the fight to prevent and stop sexual assault.

Stalking remains a crime which is poorly understood and often misrepresented in the media or popular culture. Rather than being a random nuisance or harmless prank, this type of abusive harassment is surprisingly common, and is often frequent, costly, and emotionally devastating.

Human traffickers haven’t closed their “business” nor observed social distancing in response to COVID-19. In fact what has been a challenge for most of us has been an opportunity to increase their business as seen in the fact that through June, 2020, calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported a 90% increase in calls of “online enticement” compared to the same time the year before.

In March 2020, as the virus was spreading throughout the country, the FBI issued a warning to parents regarding the presence of sexual predators on the internet.

“How are you feeling?” It’s a simple question we encounter quite often in life (even more in the age of Covid). But how often do we answer honestly? How often do we actually know the honest answer?

Friend to Friend and other advocacy organizations want North Carolina legislators to change NC state laws that allow children as young as 14 years old to get married, opening the door for sexual abuse of children.

I once asked a room full of convicted domestic violence offenders to give me some examples of verbal abuse they had used against their partners. As you can imagine, many of the responses aren’t suitable for printing, but some others stuck out at me.

“I told her she was a horrible mother.”

“When she got mad at me, I would tell her that I knew she’d never leave because no one else would ever want someone that ugly.”

“I used to always tell her she was crazy.”

During the ever-changing landscape of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many victims of interpersonal violence (IPV) experience an increase in domestic violence, leaving victims unsafe at home. In this time of rapid change, we at Friend to Friend are more committed than ever to providing emergency shelter and services without interruption.

Children’s brains create thousands of neural pathways at any given moment, taking in huge amounts of information from their surrounding environment.

It took me over twelve years to change from describing myself as a “rape victim” to a “sexual assault survivor”. My story began when I was seventeen years old - this is where it begins.

Leslie defines herself in many ways – a spouse, a mother, a volunteer, an advocate.

And a two-time rape survivor.

On the night that I was sexually assaulted, I was lying in bed reading a literature assignment. Exciting stuff for a Friday night. I don’t remember what the material was precisely, but I know it had been a long day, I was having trouble sleeping, and I was hoping to get ahead on my college homework knowing I had back-to-back work shifts over the weekend.

With the Coronavirus forcing many students to transition into online learning, America’s youth are spending more time on their devices than ever before. This rise in screen time is almost certain to increase cyber-bullying, and during this time, home isolation presents a great chance for parents and teachers to make sure they are being vigilant.

Most people believe they’d know stalking when they see it.

With Christmas less than one month away, Christmas shopping is likely on many peoples’ minds. Whether you are a super preparer, casual gift-gatherer, or last minute speed-shopper, consider using your Christmas budget this year to buy gifts that will bring joy to family and friends AND support survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in America and around the world.

Many domestic violence survivors struggle with grieving the loss of their past relationship(s)- regardless of how unhealthy or unsafe they might have been.

Friend to Friend is committed to providing an abuse-free culture for all. All people have a variety of identities including race, class, gender, sexuality, religious beliefs, age, cultural background, and more. This is also true for the clients we serve.

As hashtags such as #MeToo and #WhyIDidntReport circulated across social media in support of sexual assault survivors, a corresponding hashtag also appeared: #SaveOurSons. And as a #boymom, I have some thoughts.

Caroline Reynolds